VacationSelector
Titanic Belfast, Belfast
BelfastTitanic Belfast
The Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket, Phuket
PhuketThe Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket

Photos: Belfast by Nico Kaiser, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Phuket by Mussi Katz, CC0.

Belfast or Phuket?

Our verdict in twelve categories, each scored against the same fixed benchmark cities, and the climate month by month, so you can choose for your trip.

Choose Belfast for

  • getting around
  • live music and the arts
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Belfast’s own page.

Choose Phuket for

  • beaches
  • wellness
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Phuket’s own page.

Scoreboard

Twelve categories on one fixed scale from 0 to 100. The shaded stretch is the gap between the two.

Beaches & swimming. Belfast 20, Phuket 90: Phuket leads by 70 points.
Food & drink. Belfast 50, Phuket 66: Phuket leads by 16 points.
Culture & sights. Belfast 55, Phuket 35: Belfast leads by 20 points.
Nightlife. Belfast 50, Phuket 72: Phuket leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. Belfast 74, Phuket 80: Phuket leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Belfast 66, Phuket 45: Belfast leads by 21 points.
Good for families. Belfast 58, Phuket 65: Phuket leads by 7 points.
Getting around. Belfast 62, Phuket 22: Belfast leads by 40 points.
Shopping & style. Belfast 45, Phuket 42: Belfast leads by 3 points.
Affordability. Belfast 48, Phuket 68: Phuket leads by 20 points.
Live music & performing arts. Belfast 55, Phuket 20: Belfast leads by 35 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Belfast 25, Phuket 82: Phuket leads by 57 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Belfast and Phuket.

Your match

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.

Belfast
51match

Wins on getting around and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Phuket
Best match
57match

Wins on beaches and wellness with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Belfast in July

19 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
74 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
12 °Csea
17 hdaylight a day

Phuket in July

32 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
287 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
30 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
BelfastPhuket

Where the figures come from

Phuket's temperatures are measured 27 km from the centre, at Phuket Airport.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Belfast: 1991-2020 normals, Belfast / Aldergrove Airport (19.4 km from centre). Phuket: 1991-2020 (rainfall 1961-1990) normals, Phuket Airport (26.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBelfastPhuket
Official languageEnglishThai
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)Baht (THB)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzABCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+7
Emergency number112 or 999Police 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199
Elevation3 m19 m
Main airportGeorge Best Belfast City Airport (BHD)4 km from centre25 non-stop destinationsPhuket International Airport (HKT)27 km from centre85 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days-

By the numbers

MeasureBelfastPhuket
City population345,00677,610
People per km²3,0006,468
Museums within 10 km82
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Belfast or Phuket somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. Rainfall where no rain gauge is within 25 km is from the TerraClimate 1991-2020 climatology (Abatzoglou et al. 2018, Scientific Data), read at the city. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. Non-stop route lists from the "Airlines and destinations" tables on English Wikipedia airport articles, by Wikipedia contributors, reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Currency from the ISO 4217 register maintained by SIX, cross-checked against country data from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0). Price level from World Bank open data (PPP conversion factor for private consumption and official exchange rate), CC BY 4.0. Time zones from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0); clock offsets computed from the IANA time zone database. Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm.

Category scores are our editorial verdict under rubric v3, each placed against the same fixed benchmark cities; the climate figures are measured. How the scores are set. Snapshot generated 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.